Women’s Initiative and Leadership Council

From coast to coast, our women leaders shape our firm every day.

Building on more than half a century of fostering and promoting women leaders at the firm, Fisher Phillips’ Women’s Initiative and Leadership Council (WILC) strives to advance women internally, in the legal profession, and throughout our communities. Through its hard work, we have enhanced our programs and policies at every level to provide support for all of our employees. This includes generous maternity and paternity leave policies and other flexible work arrangements that suit the modern professional.

Comprising partners, associates, and professional staff from our offices around the nation, WILC works each and every day to make our firm a better place for women. Some concrete examples include:

  • Recruiting, developing, and retaining talented women attorneys. WILC has developed numerous policies and initiatives to make sure that gender differences make no difference in our hiring and promotion decisions. The firm maintains generous maternal/parental leave, remote work, and reduced time options to promote work-life balance, and through WILC’s help we have developed an extensive network of resources to help our attorneys and staff manage their work and home lives. For example, our partnership with Milk Stork enables breast feeding moms to ship or carry refrigerated breast milk while they are traveling for business – at no cost.
  • Fostering female leadership. WILC fosters mentor and sponsorship relationships among women attorneys to help them develop as future leaders here. We are proud that more than 65% of our practice groups and industry teams are chaired by women, and one-third of our three-member Management Committee is also female.
  • Sharing ideas. The Committee provides a forum for attorneys to share experiences and resources, exchange ideas, and build business development opportunities. While cultivating an inclusive environment that addresses important issues such as work-life balance and preventing attrition, WILC also sponsors local events to connect women with clients and the community.
  • Spearheading external programs supporting professional women. WILC is committed to promoting business development by and for women. Our Committee regularly hosts and supports numerous women-focused events and programs – including those of the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Women’s Initiative, The National Association of Women Lawyers, and Women, Influence & Power in Law – and encourages the firm to participate in bar organizations and other groups that help women advance in the law and society.

Our WILC Committee

WILC is comprised of both a Steering Committee – which actively pursues and promotes WILC’s core mission to advance women both internally and externally – and WILC Ambassadors at the local level who support our attorneys and staff throughout the firm and promote WILC’s goals and endeavors across the country.

WILC Ambassadors
Each Fisher Phillips office also contains an attorney WILC Ambassador. The Ambassadors attend quarterly meetings and serve as a WILC resource for the attorneys in their local offices. The Ambassadors also serve as a sounding board and an advocate for our women attorneys and actively promote WILC’s initiatives.